Geysir Staff Yet To Hear From Owner About The Future Of The Company

After being laid off last week, staff at Geysir are yet to hear about their future with the company or whether they will receive any unemployment benefits.

This was reported by Fréttablaðið, who spoke with an employee this morning about the situation they have been left in.

One week ago, the staff all received a message from the owners telling them that they should apply for unemployment benefits even though the company has yet to declare bankruptcy.

The benefits would start from the day the company declares bankruptcy.

A dark day for Geysir.

Over 40 employees were laid off last week with six stores all closing, including the Fjallraven store on Laugavegur. All of these stores are owned by Arctic Shopping.

The employees have received 62% of their salaries for January. A crisis meeting was held on the 1st of February with all the employees.

It has been revealed that Bryndís Guðnadóttir, director of labour union VR’s payroll department, was present at the crisis meeting. No information has been received by the company about the state of their affairs.

Unable to pay all the staff.

According to Stundin‘s news, the owners told employees on the 31st of January that they would not be able to pay employees but with the weekend’s income, and that it would come the next day. This however was untrue.

The Geysir store in Haukdal is still open and is not owned by Arctic Shopping.

The founder and owner of the store, Jóhann Guðlaugsson, has yet to make an official statement on the matter.

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

You can also check out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door.